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Henry Armstrong Miller
| placeofbirth = Missouri, USA | height = | weight = | heya = Tomozuna | rank = | record = 403-303-99 | debut = July 1988 | highestrank = Maegashira 12 (September, 2000) | retireddate = November, 2003 | yushos = 1 (Makushita) 1 (Jonokuchi) | prizes = | goldstars = | weburl = http://ameblo.jp/sentoryu/ | update = November 2007 }} Henry Armstrong Miller (born July 16, 1969) is a former sumo wrestler, originally from St. Louis, Missouri, United States, who competed under the shikona . The first wrestler from the US mainland to reach the top makuuchi division, he made his professional debut in 1988 and reached a highest rank of maegashira 12 before retiring in 2003. He is currently a Mixed martial arts fighter. Early life He was born in Tachikawa, Japan, the son of an African American father and Japanese mother. He lived on Yokota Air Base until the age of six, when he moved with his family to St Louis, Missouri. He grew up in Ferguson. His dream of becoming a professional football player was ended by a knee injury in his senior year of high school, but he had also been wrestling since elementary school and he had qualified for the state championships. After graduating in 1987 he returned to Japan to try professional sumo. Sumo career He joined the Tomozuna stable of wrestlers, also the home of future ozeki Kaio. He was given the shikona of Sentoryu, meaning "fighting war dragon" but also a play on words, namechecking his home town of St Louis. He was relatively small at 174 cm and 94 kg when he made his debut in July 1988. He won the yusho or tournament championship in his first official tournament in the jonidan division in September 1988, defeating a fellow American, Shinnishiki from Los Angeles. In 1991 he reached makushita for the first time but injury problems meant he did not establish himself in the division until 1993. In November 1994 he became a sekitori for the first time but lasted only two tournaments in the juryo division before being demoted. It took Sentoryu more than four years of hard toil in the unsalaried makushita division (including a change of name to Kaishinzan in 1997) before he could win promotion back to the second division in July 1999, after an unbeaten 7-0 yusho in May. He reverted back to the name Sentoryu and a strong 13-2 record in March 2000 sent him to the top of the juryo division. With an 8-7 mark in May 2000, he finally achieved his goal of promotion to the top makuuchi division in July. It had taken him 72 tournaments from his professional debut to reach makuuchi, by far the slowest amongst foreign born wrestlers. Sentoryu came through with a winning record of 8-7 in his debut but was then demoted after only recording a 5-10 score in September 2000. He had to withdraw from the following tournament in November and missed the January 2001 basho. Nevertheless he managed to hold his own in juryo, and had one more visit to the top division in January 2002. However, he suffered a serious injury and was unable to compete in the March and May 2002 tournaments, falling all the way back to makushita. He refused to give up and fought his way back to sekitori status in September 2003, becoming the fifth oldest wrestler to return to juryo in the postwar era at 34 years, 1 month. However, another injury convinced him to retire at the end of the year, in the same tournament as Musashimaru. His great fighting spirit, despite all his injuries, won him many admirers. He defeated Asashōryū in their only meeting in November 2000, when both were in the juryo division. He also had three wins over Kotomitsuki in their four meetings. Fighting style Sentoryu favoured pushing and thrusting techniques, winning most of his matches by oshi dashi (push out), hatakikomi (slap down) or hikiotoshi (pull down). Sumo top division record }} MMA career Since his retirement from sumo, Sentoryu has tried his luck at mixed martial arts. His debut was for PRIDE in April 2004. He has six wins and nine losses in his sixteen fights to date. He styles himself Henry "Sentoryu" Miller. He made an agrement with World Victory Road and recently fought against Yoshihiro Nakao. MMA Record |- |style="text-align: center" colspan=7|'6 wins' (5 TKO's, 1 submissions, 0 decisions), 10 losses, 0 draws, 1 no contest. |- | align="center" style="background: #f0f0f0"|Date | align="center" style="background: #f0f0f0"|Outcome | align="center" style="background: #f0f0f0"|Record | align="center" style="background: #f0f0f0"|Opponent | align="center" style="background: #f0f0f0"|Method | align="center" style="background: #f0f0f0"|Event | align="center" style="background: #f0f0f0"|Round, time | align="center" style="background: #f0f0f0"|Notes |- ||3/7/2010 | Loss |6-10 | Yoshihiro Nakao |TKO (Punches) |World Victory Road Presents: Sengoku Raiden Championships 12 |2, 3:27 |- ||11/27/2009 | Win |6-9 | Min Soo Kim | KO (Knee and Punch ) |The Khan 2 |1, 1:12 |- ||11/1/2009 | Loss |5-9 | Chang Seob Lee |TKO (Punches) |HEAT 12 |1, 0:53 |- ||9/26/2009 | Loss |5-8 | Cristiano Kaminishi |TKO (Punches) |HEAT 11 |3, 3:36 |- ||7/18/2009 |No Contest |5-7 | Cristiano Kaminishi |NC (Groin Strike) |HEAT 10 |1, 0:54 |- ||3/28/2009 | Win |5-7 | Ryuta Noji |KO (Punches) |HEAT 9 |1, 1:14 |- ||12/14/2008 | Win |4-7 | Junpei Hamada |KO (Punches) |HEAT 8 |1, 0:52 |- ||4/13/2007 | Loss |3-7 | Cristiano Kaminishi |KO (Head Kick) |DEEP 29 - Impact |1, 4:00 |- ||3/23/2007 | Win |3-6 | Ji Fun Kim |KO (Punch) |HEAT 3 |1, 4:58 |- |9/30/2006 | Loss |2-6 | Mostapha Al-turk |TKO (Punches) |Cage Rage 18: Battleground |1, 0:56 |- |8/27/2006 | Win |2-5 | Seiji Ogura |Submission (Rear Naked Choke) |Pancrase-Blow 6 |1, 1:37 |- |7/1/2006 | Loss |1-5 | Robert Berry |TKO (Punches) |Cage Rage 17: Ultimate Challenge |1, 1:06 |- |10/23/2005 | Loss |1-4 | Zuluzinho |TKO (Knees) |PRIDE 30: Fully Loaded |1, 1:31 |- |7/17/2005 | Loss |1-3 | James Thompson |KO (Punch) |PRIDE Bushido 8 |1, 1:21 |- | 12/31/2004 | Loss |1-2 | Makoto Takimoto |Decision(Unanimous) |PRIDE Shockwave 2004 |3, 5:00 |- |10/14/2004 | Win |1-1 | Mal Foki |KO (Punches) |PRIDE Bushido 5 |1, 0:21 |- |4/25/2004 | Loss |0-1 | Giant Silva |Submission (Kimura) |PRIDE Total Elimination 2004 |1, 4:04 |- See also *Glossary of sumo terms *List of past sumo wrestlers *List of male mixed martial artists References External links *Japan Sumo Association profile *Official website *MMA statistics Category:American sumo wrestlers Category:American mixed martial artists Category:1969 births Category:Living people Category:Japanese people of American descent Category:People from St. Louis, Missouri de:Sentoryū Henri ja:戦闘竜